Student unity, awareness highlight 'Day of Solidarity'

Amid the Locust Walk regulars, there were some new flyers and new faces this week. Clad in black, Penn graduate and undergraduate students handed out flyers yesterday and beckoned for passers-by to "Support Affirmative Action," "Dress in Black" and "Get on the Bus!" As part of yesterday's "Day of Solidarity" -- organized by various student groups on campus, including the Black Student League and UMOJA -- several affirmative action supporters showed their solidarity by wearing black, helping to hand out flyers on the Walk and signing up to attend the April 1 March on Washington, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the affirmative action admission policies at the University of Michigan. "This is the Civil Rights Movement of our generation," said College sophomore and BSL Vice President Cassi Pittman, one of the event organizers. "We're trying to get the campus jumping," said College junior Chevon Walker, an event organizer and member of the Political Action and Research Committee of UMOJA and the BSL. Numerous students grabbed flyers and signed up for the march. College junior Clarence Tong, vice president of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition, wore black and signed up for the march today. Despite the fact that the APSC has not officially endorsed affirmative action -- "Not all of our constituents support it" --Tong said that he came out because he personally is "a firm supporter." According to Walker, the main goal of the day was to show the urgency of this issue and reach out to the people who are "teetering." This day was meant to "get people to educate themselves." "Even if they form an opinion against affirmative action, at least they have one," she added. Pittman, who spent time on the Walk handing out flyers, concurred. "We did a good job of mobilizing core supporters," she said. "We are getting people talking." College freshman Elizabeth Curtis-Bey took her shift handing out flyers in the afternoon. "Support your peers!" she yelled to a group of high school students touring campus. "This campus is an active campus!" "People have really been responding," she said. Vinay Harpalani, a Ph.D. candidate in education, a master's candidate in bioethics and a member of the national group BAMN -- Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary -- was instrumental in helping to organize the day and other efforts on campus. According to Harpalani, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, affirmative action mobilization at Penn began well before the University of Michigan case. "Starting in '99, there were large rallies with 100 to 200 people in support," he said, adding that since the Michigan case, the movement has really taken flight. Today, "we've had lots of support, and people just keep coming -- over 60 people signed up today" for a space on the buses to the March on Washington, he noted, beaming. "Around 60 signed up on Wednesday, too." Tia Jackson, a second-year Social Work graduate student, has been a driving force in organizing support for affirmative action at the School of Social Work. "Our dean [Richard Gelles] was the first dean [at Penn] to support this and fund buses," Jackson said. Out of roughly 300 students enrolled in the school, she said, 80 have signed up for spots on the buses to D.C. While there was support, however, there was also avoidance. "A lot of people wouldn't take flyers," said College junior Nicolas Rodriquez, spokesperson for the Latino Coalition, which has yet to officially take a stance on the issue. While he was pleased with the day's success, Rodriquez lamented that "no one came up to us and said, 'We're against this'" -- whether in "fear of appearing racist" or just apathy. "We welcome dialogue," he said. "Better dialogue leads to a better outcome, whether positive or negative."

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